exact scenario where he's not the nominee. that wasn't true before yesterday. i think he's been far and away the most likely nominee for a long time, but you know, rick santorum could go on some huge winning streak and change things. as of now, i'm comfortable saying that this is on this trajectory the beginning of the end of romney becoming the nominee and having the delegates in hand before tampa. >> the beginning of the end says mark halperin. michael steele, you once said that mitt romney, the brother just can't bake the cake. it looks like the oven may be hot enough for romney. let's look at the winner board. romney at 47% of the vote in illinois. rick santorum at 35%. ron paul at 9% is, gingrich at 8%. more staggering i guess is the delegate total romney at 485, santorum at 193, gingrich at 137, paul at 34. what do you make of it? >> i agree with park. he's clearly and always been kind of the guy to beat and been out there, but it doesn't mean

you're not going to have tensions going into this convention that i still don't believe he'll have 1144 when he gets to tampa. he'll have to negotiate that. i don't see how he wins 50 plus percent of the delegates. he got 47 here in illinois, which was tailor-made for him. illinois's a state where he should have had 52, 53% of the vote in which case that -- when you hit that threshold, you get all the dels under the rules. if you're still winning the way he's winning, it's all proportional. tell me where you get to the number. this thing goes on. newt gingrich is not giving up his battle flag, neither is rick santorum. just hunker down, have popcorn and enjoy. >> i was going to bring that up. the whole newt gingrich, is it too late for him to get behind santorum to make a difference on the conservative side? >> no, it's not. i wouldn't put it the past the way these processes work that there's some back room conversations. >> that's what i was thinking. >> as we alluded to with ron paul and the romney campaign

having sort of a reproachmont. >> it goes down to the issue of why is newt gingrich running. i don't think he's running to further the conservative cause. >> does that matter? >> no, it doesn't matter. but that would stop him from making a deal with santorum and doing a dignified exit. >> i think what we saw here, the significant thing last night is the 1144 issue is still very much alive for romney. there are still very clear demographic and cultural barriers he faces. we're going to louisiana this saturday. he may lose louisiana. then what are we talking about then? last night sort of blew up the most plausible rick santorum scenario that existed that was coming out of alabama and mississippi. gingrich didn't drop out but he was margin naturalized in the last week, got the one-on-one shot with romney he wanted. he didn't grow his base at all. >> mark, talk about the jeb bush endorseme endorsement.

do you think this was something the romney campaign lined up and waiting till he had a knockout punch to have bush deliver it. >> i don't believe so based on what i've been told. it's an endorse the they very much wanted. jeb bush has a lot of skepticism about mitt romney as a potential president. bush 41s endorsed. bush 43 has not. this was where jeb bush was going to end up eventually. i think he held off till mitt romney proved himself and became the inevitable nominee. you'll see other people follow in the wake of this. this is a big symbolic signal to the establishment. you know, there's a lot of ambiguity about the way the delegate rules work. there's no question that there's room there, not as much on the democratic side with their many superdelegates but room for jeb bush to influence a lot of people at the county level and as we go forward, some of these delegate who's weren't fully committed i think now will be because of the signal this sends. >> let's talk about the schedule.

april may be a cruel month for rick santorum. i know you alluded to some of the primary calendar here, steve. d.c., maryland, wisconsin, connecticut, delaware and, no, pennsylvania and rhode island, pennsylvania being santorum's best bet. may could be a warmer upon the. >> don't discount wisconsin. wisconsin's a big apple on the table for rick santorum. if he and mark can speak 0 this i think better than most looking at the numbers. if he gets wisconsin under his wing, that's a big deal. it's a big number. it's winning outside the south. and it's kind of setting a new tone for what happens next going into the rest of april and may. >> mark, actually, i want to -- this moment in the primary season reminds me of what happened top gingrich after his strong showing in south carolina. he had a series of difficult primaries and the question was can is he live off the land. what will -- what do you make for santorum's chances as far as waiting out april and then making it to may where of

course, it's a more southern primary and more favorable territory for santorum's campaign? >> i don't see a path for him unless he's able to win wisconsin. he doesn't have to win by a lot but it is a mix between the southern states and rural states that he's done well in. and the midwestern industrial states that you governor romney has won. look, the thing about rick santorum is, he's not particularly well since the michigan primary. he's not had very many days where he's driven the news cycle in i an positive way. the illinois results were the clearest indication of that because newt gingrich was mostly margin naturalized there. the path is, he gets on a roll, he starts to drive a message, puts romney on the defensive and he wins wisconsin, wins pennsylvania, does decently in the other northeastern states. but there's nothing he's done in the last month that would give you confidence he's capable of that. if he does, then he does go into may with better contests for him. we could see the thing change

where he's got a chance to deny romney the majority not to win an outright majority himself. >> a lot of if/then statements about his chances. abby, we've talked a lot about the enthusiasm around the candidates in the republican race. we did a little sleuthing as we are want to do here at "now," and if you look at what has gone on in terms of turnouts, decrease in turnout in florida, 13%, down 13%. georgia down 7%, arizona down 16%. increases in illinois by 1%. ohio and michigan also saw increases in turnout. south carolina saw a big turnout. especially with regard to south carolina, i think it was a hot contest. illinois, sorry, ohio and michigan, last year, terp earlier in the 2008 cycle. so they sort of had more importance this go round. that maybe accounts for some of the increased turnout. when you think about the republican party and the likelihood of a mitt romney

nominee, what do you make of that will as far as enthusiasm in the republican party? >> well, i think jeb bush's endorsement today is a great example of just where the base is at right now. there are so many republicans that just say they're waiting for the inevitable, not thrilled about it, not excited about it. that's why you don't see people mobilized to vote unless there's a reason, they're very conservative or mormons for romney or evangelical for santorum, you don't see people jumping out of their house to vote necessarily. that's a big problem. i think now people are realizing it's inevitable that romney will probably -- the math is in his favor. that still i don't think is going to be helpful in the general election. >> it's not a big ---ing. >> we've lost close to 600,000. we're off by 600,000 voters off of 2008. this is the election where we unseat barack obama. this is the election where we're supposed to be, you know, driving and really cementing the gains from 2010.

and we're down 600,000 in turnout? that's not a cause for celebration. certainly is a concern for party building, what additional efforts has the national and state parties taken to take advantage of this period, this extended primary period to build the base, to organize and to bring new voters? let alone the old ones out. getting new voters. >> >> that's a point dick armey makes today in "the wall street journal" about the need of a candidate who brings new customers added to the political marketplace. one of the things you're seeing with these candidates, the same old customers and fewer snir especially with my generation. that's the biggest thing here is four years ago, obama brought them all in. this was a time that republicans can say they're not thrilled with obama. he didn't do what he promised at this point. this was a time for the republicans to convince youth to say come into our tent. we're going to represent you with our message. they haven't done that. so you know, we're not mobilized to vote this time.

>> in the meantime, jim messina is talking about winning north carolina and virginia, georgia and arizona. we'll talk more about the obama campaign later on. mark halperin, thank you as always. coming up, where do last night's results leave rick santorum? does the mcgyver campaign have the organization and cash to carry on? we'll ask his national communications director hogan gidley when he joins us live next on "now." ♪ i'm michael bazinet, president of creative digital imaging of bangor, maine. we have customers all over the united states. we rely on the postal service for everything that we do. the eastern maine processing facility is vital to our operation and our success. if we lose this processing facility we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times. we would have to consider layoffs

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state, we're going to win central illinois, western illinois. we won the areas that

conservatives and republicans populate. we're very happy about that. >> that that was rick santorum last night saying while he didn't win the state, he won where conservatives and republicans live. joining us now is santorum national communications director hogan gidley. a pleasure to have you as always, sir. >> welcome back from vegas, alex. great to be here. >> don't giveaway all the secrets, hogan. your man senator rick santorum saying he won where conservatives and republicans live. i want to unpack that a little bit. we look at the exit polls. mitt romney won not only independents which comes to little surprise to those of us watching the race but he won conservatives 47 to 39%, those who strongly support the tea party, he won those making under $30 thu a year, 41% to 39%. if those folks aren't considered conservatives and republicans, who are they? >> well, i mean, you have to look at the entire picture. you can't take one state that's

tailor-made for mitt romney and say it's indicative of the entire country. the bottom line is, in the fall, we're going to need someone who can walk out to the end of that stage, roll up their sleeves and say, i get you. i get what's going on because i faced the same struggles. mitt romney cannot energize this base. he cannot energize america. that's been the big problem in this whole campaign. regardless of where he gets a percentage here, a percentage there, with women, without women, that's all fine and dandy. i appreciate the percentages but the fact of the matter is we need somebody who at least has the base locked up before they move on to something else. he can't lock up that base. >> hogan, let's be honest. it looks like he's increasing support among blue collar voters, conservatives, those tea partiers, sort of righter wing of the party. those trend lines aren't good for rick santorum. i always bring this up with you, but catholic voters romney won

53 to santorum's 30%. we've talked about this and you said catholics haven't had a chance to digest rick santorum's message. it's been weeks now and he's still not pulling them in. >> catholics aren't all republicans either. there are a lot of moderates and democrat catholics. it's like saying the women vote. women vote on different issues. catholics are not one candidate because they're catholic, i'm going to vote for them. that's insulting to the denomination. look at the swing states and how we would do against president obama versus how romney would do. the swing states is where we need to defeat this president. mitt romney doesn't have the message in those areas. he can win a primary pumping in a ton of money and talking a good game. but if something goes wrong in this primary, it's obvious this is his campaign person said today earlier, he'll bring out the old etch a sketch, shake it up and reset for the general election so he won't have to stick to the conservative views.

the bottom line is he wants this race to be over so he can start to tack back to who he at his core and that's a moderate. i think we've exposed that pretty well. >> hogan, steve kornacki has a question for you. >> i want to ask you to follow-up on something santorum said after mississippi and alabama, when he won those two states, he said he's going to pursue del delegates all across the country and win by the end of the primary season. since he made that statement he's fallen an additional 50 or 60 delegates behind romney. he glot blown out in puerto rico after campaigning down there and then we had last night. now can you concede impossible that the scenario that he outlined that he rolls through the spring and wins the nomination before the end of the praerl season? is that now impossible, would you acknowledge? >> no, it's not impossible. you're looking at mitt rommy's

numbers and saying i guess romney has all the numbers right. he doesn't. we're playing by the rules of delegates outlined by the rnc and individual states. arithmetic romney is in his own world. those delegates in a lot of places haven't been pledged. with regards to puerto rico, of course we went down there and campaigned. rick santorum said he would. he has long-standing relationships down there. he's done a lot for the people over the years. of course, he went down there to campaign. if we'd have known in hindsight that mitt romney was going to blatantly pander and tell them the prosecutorian people don't have to learn english to become a state, we might have rethought that a bit in the strategy. if we had known he was going to do it so blatantly in puerto rico, we might have the rethought the trip. the bottom line is, just a few days ago we were talking about mississippi and alabama. we'll be on to be pennsylvania, on to wisconsin. those are important states, too. this is the halfway point.

we have a whole second half of football ready. our chinstraps are buckled and we're ready to take it on into the convention. >> you should know michael steele is sitting next to me nodding his head as you say this thing isn'tover yet. i want to hope this up to the panel. >> i'm enjoying the moment. >> i the question of electability which in some ways is the question of inevitability, mitt romney in alaba alabama, 51% to santorum's 39%. in illinois, 74% of voters voting calling him more electable than rick strum at 17%. now, i wonder and i want to ask you, michael, when you hear this on some level, it's sort of like a backhanded compliment. on one level, when you say one's the most electable and this thing is all buttoned up, to a certain degree that must fire up -- we listened to hogan and

those in states yet to vote and those in the base who say you can't speak pore me yet. >> if he was the most electable, he would have been elect bid now. the fact is, he hasn't been. he has to slog through this process because without the money and without the organization of a mitt romney, a rick santorum and even a newt gingrich to a degree have been able to win on points, on message. and they communicate in a style and a fashion that goes beyond the question of electability. it's am i going to go fight for this guy. that's the core of what electability is all about. if you don't have that, if you don't bring that to the table, that's the concern a lot of the folks in washington who like to whisper in small corners don't want to talk about out loud is will he bring, romney, that firepower, that commitment to go fight for him this fall or will it just be a frustrated effort because we settled on him because everyone told me he's the guy. so the electability questions becomes a problem once you get beyond a certain point because people, if they aren't feeling

it, it doesn't matter whether they consider you electable, 74%. you're not winning where you need to win. >> hogan, what you did you make of the jeb bush endorsement for romney this morning? >> that's one endorsement. that's great. we've been doing pretty well without the establishment endorsement so far. what michael said is right. you want a candidate, the old add daniel walk across broken glass to support. the problem with romney's folks, they won't even walk across a paved parking lot with a pire of nikes on and a golf cart to walk across it. they won't do it. we've got to have a candidate that comes out and says we want to do this in november, unseat this president and we will walk across glass to do it. rick santorum is the only guy that offers that at this point. >> wow, niks and broken glass. hogan gidley, take care out there. we hope to have you back soon, sir. >> thanks, god bless. >> after the break, what about the other two guys?

why are newt gingrich and ron paul still in this? and what is the end game? the panel will answer that question next on "now." ♪ when your chain of supply goes from here to shanghai, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ chips from here, boards from there track it all through the air, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ clearing customs like that hurry up no time flat that's logistics. ♪ ♪ all new technology ups brings to me, that's logistics. ♪ i opened the first sammy's back sammin 1966. box. my employees are like family. and, i want people that work for me to feel that they're sharing in my success. we purchase as much as we can on the american express open gold card.

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could create more than half a million jobs in the us alone. from the canadian border, through the mid west, to the gulf coast. benefiting hundreds of thousands of families throughout the country. this is just what our economy needs right now. there were these rumors going around that there was some sort of secret deal with you and mitt romney. you seemed to be very friendly during a couple debates. anything to that? >> there's something about it it's very sket because he and i don't know a lot about it. >> ron paul was on jay leno last night trying to debunk rumors of a bromance between he and mitt romney. steve, there have been reports the romney folks and the paul folks have been joining together to screw up the delegate math for rick santorum. >> right. well and there's some thought, if you carry it out all the way,

there's some thought that the poll people see more of an opportunity long-term in helping out mitt romney versus out helpingous newt gingrich versus rick santorum, the thought being romney falls short of 1144. we go into the summer months. he needs somebody to put him over the top. maybe it could be ron paul. that the point it's either platform concessions. >> or jesse benton says -- head of all things gold, jesse benton, paul's campaign chair says we're looking potentially for ron to be the vice presidential nominee. >> or rand. that's the other name. >> is that possible? >> anything's possible. >> that's new customers. >> you anything's possible. >> ip just have your bowl of popcorn. >> and enjoy this. i mean, everybody's trying to think this out too much. this thing is going to get played out. is there a bro man's between those twos campaigns? absolutely. it's like the biggest secret in washington. everyone gets it. those 60 days between the end of

june and the beginning of the tampa festivities will see a lot of moving parts come into focus. and i think you're exactly dead on there, eeb, in terms of all the little shenanigans and conversations that people are having and who they're trying to prop up and put in play. >> i'm not convinces there's not a bromance between gingrich and santorum either. >> i would agree with that. it's a bro moment. >> we're talking about bowls of popcorn. talk about newt gingrich, which is to say what does he get out of this? hugo, at a certain point, he's helping romney really. >> he's saying he's staying in there so that romney doesn't win because he doesn't feel he's electable. at the end of the day, he's hurting that. >> i don't think newt is staying in there for any reasons other than newt. i think he's staying in there because what else is he going to do right now? he likes it. he gets to do photo ops, events, travel around, spend money. >> go to zoos. >> go to zoos. >> did i mention go to zoos? >> first quarter fund-raising

totals are in. if there's one thing we can learn, it's that super pacs are the not so super secret weapons. we will crunch the campaign numbers next on "now." people really love snapshot from progressive, but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. i was worried it would be hard to install. but it's really easy. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. yeah. you're not... filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. plug into the savings you deserve with snapshot from progressive.

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their bachelor's or master's degree for tomorrow's careers. this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team. february fund-raising totals show president obama is sitting on a huge pile of cash. while his republican opponents are burning through more money than they can raise. michael steele, you know something about fund-raising. >> uh-huh. >> president obama, this is just his campaign. keep in mind this is for both the primary and general. this is just his campaign, not the dnc. has $84.7 million cash on hand, mitt romney 7.3, ron paul 1.4. >> it's the benefit of being the incumbent. you goet to stog pile your cash. you're not in an active primary and having 0 spend it to fend off challengers and to get ready for a general. so, you know, you look at the

cash. there's two buckets of cash. there's primary cash and there's general election cash. and so romney's raising a little bit of both right now, and using his primary cash up significantly. but he's also stockpiling general election cash he'll have to kick off after the convention. the reality of it is, as we saw in 2008, once the vice presidential choice is made, the dollars begin to coalesce and come in at a much steadier and heavier pace. so they'll catch up in this process. there's a reason why the obama people are concerned about the super pacs and how their super pac is doing because their major donors have taken it, well, he's going to win this anyway. >> super pacs have only really helped obama on the republican side, they've opened up a can of worm ises for every capped in the field. that's the best thing for the democratic party right now. >> doesn't it seem like it's a tale of two cities where you've got the individual donors. that's going to favor obama.

that's going to be his financial advantage. you look at the super elite affluent donors, sheldon adelson as soon as this is over i'm pouring this money into romney. seems like he'll end up with a super pac advantage in the fall. i think there will be huge disparities. >> keep in mind the difference though. that super pac money is not going to turn out your vote, not going to put a yard sign in someone's yard. it's all -- >> it could put a sign in someone's yard. i think you're going to see romney having an awful lot of money. a lot of wall street money available to him when he's in the general election. so the figures right now on obama versus the rest of the field are pretty meaningless right now. >> you raise a good point. etalk about how the money is being spent and how president obama's campaign has spent in february, payroll and payroll taxes 3 much $3 million. online advertising $3 million. postage $1.1 million, that's direct mail. this is going to, you know, not only fostering but rekindling

and growing the grassroots and the online and digital networks that the team has. you look at how much the republican candidates have spent sbind, $400,000. we've talked a lot about sleeping giants. when you look towards a general election, it's not just that obama has cash. they are sending out mailers, targeting voters. this is not stuff that anybody in the republican field is doing. >> on that point too, we talk a lot about just people being frustrated and not interested in the cycle. well, that hurt romney's ability to raise money at the end of the day. we think it will come, but really, if people don't think he has a chance of winning in the general, it's not going to hurt the fund-raising. >> he's not going to get money from the little people. he's going to get his money from people concerned about financial restructuring of the regulations, things that are the big ticket issues. >> rnc. >> the rnc has got to focus as i hope they are on those small

dollar donors. when i was chairman we brought in a million new donors to help set up the 2010 finances. raising $198 million in total out of that pocket because the big donors had moved away. off year election, a lot of them went back with bush. you have to retool the financial operations. in a presidential, the big donors come to play. the small donors aren't as significant. however, obama changed that as he is doing again in this cycle where he's got a lot of those small donors to get him to the $4 million. >> how much of the energy, you're talking about all that obama is able to do right now. how much energy for the republicans i wonder when the nomination is decided is going to revert from the 2009, 2010 mind-set of the republican party where it was all about being anti-obama? don't have to worry about the nomination process or being disappointed in romney or whatever. this is the guy that started this entire tea party movement. if we're going to get him out,

we have to do it now. >> the guy that's sort of been sitting on the sidelines if we're talking about super pacs, karl rove has raised $3.48 million, spent only $2810,000. this is last month. cash on hand, $23.6 million. karl rove is waiting till there is a nominee and then to your point, steve, you can beta dude is going to get in the race. >> absolutely. >> and to your point, michael, president obama's super pac has only raised $2 million, spent $500,000, cash on hand 2al $8 million. it's worth mentioning the buzz feed is reporting black and latino supporters of president obama are forming pac plus which will spent approximately $10 million. >> the news from all of that or the final analysis, it's not going to be decided by money because everybody is going to have plenty. it's going to be decided by the yard signs and about this marginal sort of middle group of voters that they're going to be fighting over. the question is, you know, who's going to be able to win that game. and that's not going to be about

even money -- it's interesting to me that obama is spending so much on online advertising now. i'm like, those people, the people that are going to decide the election are not payg attention right now. >> i don't know that i would -- there have been reports in the "new york times" something you may have heard of, even last week, but it was talking about what the campaign infrastructure and their sort of digital bat cave where it's the analysis of the facebook interactions and certainly there's twitter. their fingers extend deeply into digital networks. we talking whether that translates into real votes. that is certainly a community that can be tapped that's passionate that believes in the president and his message. there is no response to that on the right. >> i think we've got an interesting preview last night and in this entire republican process. if you just take the pone out of it, because romney has had so much more money than anybody else, so much better organization, if he hadn't dropped all that money on chicago airwaves, would the result have been any different than the 12-point win last

night? or people have basically decided for dem graphic reasons who they're going to go with. i wonder in the fall if that's sort of the same thing that prevails. >> the realty of politics is negative advertising works despite protestations to the contrary, people do respond to it. which is why you saw going back to iowa, romney dropping goo gobs of cash. >> that's a technical term. >> and it works. you're absolutely right, whether or not in the fall in a match-up between the president and mitt romney, how does that is super pac money, which is largely negative money going to play versus the ground game money of turning out that vote which is why you see the president doing what he's doing online right now. >> after the break the war on women spreads to even more states, but what is really driving the battle? we will ask the former president of planned parenthood next.

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across the country, lawmakers are taking aim at reproductive rights. arizona, idaho, georgia and tennessee are the latest states to the introduce bills that would put restrictions on birth control and on abortions. why are lawmakers trying to act like doctors? joining us is gloriafeld, author of the book "no excuses." gloria, thanks for joining us. >> thanks, alex. we were going to try and put up on a graphic all the things happening in states around the corrupt and overload the system. >> too much. >> i want to talk about what's going on in states like arizona where arizona lawmaker terry proud said personally, i'd like to make a law that mandates a woman watch an abortion being performed prior to having a season. idaho chuck winder said on monday rain and incest was used as a reason to oppose this.

i would hope when a woman goes into a physician with a rain issue, that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage. was this pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage or was it truly caused by rain. is the list goes on. what do you think accounts for what seems to be increasing attacks on not just women, reproductive healthet al. >> to a certain extent it's not increasing. this has been going on for the last 40 years practically. it's been chipping away. i think what has happened is two things. number one, i want to thank senator blount and rush limbaugh for splitting the world open and making it very clear that what this is about is not just abortion, it's about contraception too and what that's really about is about women's ability to have an equal place in this world. it's really laid bare the kind of misogny underlying the attacks on women's reproductive rights, women's reproductive health and reproductive justice

over the years. so these bills they're really nothing new. i've dealt with them over and over and over again. here's what needs to happen. what needs to happen is, there needs to be more coming forward on the pro woman pro-choice side. we're finally beginning to see some of that with some of these pieces of legislation in states. >> and with all due respect to that point, this has gone beyond pro-choice and pro-life. some of this rhetoric is so damaging, you talk about rush limbaugh and women being forced to watch abortions before they undergo a procedure. there's a bill currently being debated in tennessee that would post a woman's medical history, the fetus's age, her race, ethnicity, her county. her number of prior abortions if she were to have the procedure. this seems like a much more direct attack and a way of if not targeting humiliating women who choose to have abortions. it is still a legal procedure. abby, as a young woman, a conservative, republican, what do you make of this?

>> you know, i sway to the side of life because i have two adopted sisters. i'll always be grateful for their mothers giving birth to them. i hear a lot about taking funding away from planned parenthood. that scares me because there are so many wonderful things that planned parenthood does. i just think that it's sad the conversation is turning to that point. i think it should be a private thing for women. it's putting us out there, embarrassing in a way. >> what accounts, michael steele for, what accounts for the fact that no one in the republican party is you know in the national stage saying anything about this? >> the one thing that strikes me about this is entire conversation that we seem to have fallen into is that there's only men talking. >> uh-huh. >> and that to me is the most stunning part about this. that where are the republican women? it was nice to have your voice a part of this just now. >> but what about you, michael? why aren't you out there talking about this because you have understood it. >> i have talked about it from

the perspective of why don't we have, a, why are we having this conversation when people are trying to get jobs. >> because -- republicans -- >> let me tell you why we're having this conversation when people are trying to get jobs. because there is a direct relationship between women's capacity to be economically self-supporting and women's capacity to be able to plan and space their child bearing. you know, you can't get through ch college, you can't get through a career if you can't plan and space your own child bearing. >> i got all of that. i get back to my core point from a party standpoint on an issue like this, that the voices we hear emanating out of the party are not the women of the party. and their views on this. regardless of where they are on this, the conversation becomes -- when is you have a panel discussion on the hill and there's all these men there, where are the republican women in congress? >> the better issue is where are the reasonable voices.

i think it really doesn't matter who's saying it. it matters like, what are the opinions being expressed and are people willing to take political heat to do the right thing. i think that's the -- >> that's a judgment on your part. >> it is a judgmental issue. >> i'm not going to judge whether what you say is reasonable or unreasonable. i just want to hear your voice in the conversation. that has not been. >> why did those republican men not allow sandra fluke to actually even talk when she came to congress and wanted to? >> why did mitt romney who had a chance to attack a stand on some of the venom that limbaugh was -- >> he's wanting to get through the primary. >> that's a terrible reason. >> there's a lot of this innings in politics that are terrible but it's political. that's the way it works. >> if you're talking about a highway bill or someone's not willing to take a strong position on that, you give them a pass for political reasons maybe. but if you're talking about basic issues of human life and the way people live and these

are core things. this is at least as equal to jobs. this is bigger than jobs. i think it's a pretty -- i think mitt romney showed one of the reasons why he's having so much trouble in this race. >> when he gets into the general, he's going to have a really big problem because the upsurge. >> he'll switch back over again. >> then they can call him a flip-flopper. it's going to be bad for him either way. >> i would caution on that a little bit. i get certainly your affiliation and relationship to planned parenthood and a lot of the organizations. you'd be surprised, there are a lot more women who are not as strident on this issue as -- they're made out to be. >> it's not a question of strident. >> not in a negative way but out there presuming every woman is going to line up. >> i'm not talking about pro-choice and pro-life. i'm talking extended measures. look, it's a debate that is going to be continued. the supreme court is looking at the affordable care act and the individual mandate. >> we need more women talking about it. >> glor yar feldt, thank you for

joining us. we look forward to bring you back on. coming up, peyton manning, peyton manning says hello to his new team and his new pal john elway. three is a crowd and that could seen mean that tim tebow will be the odd quarterback out. we will discuss the brewing tebow debate in "now." >> coming up next on "andrea mitchell reports," condoleezza rice joins me today to talk about why our failing education system is a national security risk. plus, jeb bush's romney endorsement. and is there politics in her future? beens are slamming president obama or high gas prices and the canceled keystone pipeline? is that why the president is heading west today to talk up his energy policy in four states? ken salazar will be in nevada traveling with the president. and we'll also talk about the latest about trayvon martin, the emotional "today" show interview with his parents. we'll see you in 15 minutes.

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welcome back. time for what now? ! federal tax analysts say the buffett rule tax on millionaires would net just $47 billion over the next 11 years. michael steele, this would be sort of like mana from heaven for all the republicans accusing the president of waging class warfare. orrin hatch said i hope the president will stop the class warfare and start leading real proposals to reform our broken tax code. >> i don't know where you get off on this notion thinking you're going to somehow solve a 15 -- >> president obama or me? >> both of you. get off on this idea you're going to solve a $15 trillion deficit you know or debt with taxing the wealthiest in the country. the reality of it is everyone's got to pay to play. $47 billion over ten years. >> why does it get -- >> sorry, go ahead.

>> why does the discussion get shut down because here's the scope of the problem, this doesn't completely address it. therefore, it shouldn't be incorporated into the solution. in the 1990s bill clinton raised rates on the wealthy, we heard the same arguments how it won't solve the problem. >> it's not being incorporated into anything. the senate democrats haven't passed a budget in over 3,000 days. >> that is not totally the democrats' fault. >> three years. so in other words, they're not serious. so don't give me this, we're about to go to this whole dance with the budget. ryan to his credit has. >> a big budget out filled with questions. >> it may have questions. at least we've got something to talk about. it's some kind of starting points. >> democrats are saying nothing. >> i would respectfully disagree with you on whether or not tax rates should be raised on the top 1%. >> you're going to get $47 billion. when you're talking about cutting the social safety net into shreds it's only fair you ask the top --

>> the social safety nets outstrip the $47 billion. you're not solving the problem or addressing the core -- >> we balanced the budget in 1990s by george bush senior and bill clinton raising taxes on the wealthy. >> guess what else they didn't do in the 1990s. they didn't spend $5 trillion. >> that's not to say there shouldn't be spending cuts too. >> gingrich brags about it now. >> there was no spending. >> we are moving on. we have to get to tim tebow. >> talk about spending. >> exactly. after inking a $96 million deal with denver, peyton manning says he plans to retire as a bronco. $96 million. he can contribute his salary. i'm just kidding. >> you would take it. that's the point. >> can't we give that to the budget instead? >> we will. >> peyton manning, tim tebow, tim tebow not out, not in. >> fantastic. it heightens the whole craziness of the whole thing. tim tebow, the odds are against him again. he's got to do something else

miraculous. >> the twitter machine is saying he he's going the way of the jets. >> they don't want him. >> thank you guys all for chiming in with your thoughts. that is all for us today. we will not be able to talk about student loan debt. we'll save ta for another day. thanks again to abby, michael, the karnakster, steve kornacki ab hu-hugo lindgren. il see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern when i'm joined by ben white, and more, a few more guests. till then, you can find us at facebook.com/now with alex. hello, andrea. >> thanks so much, alex. and we'll have reaction to jeb bush's romney endorsement in our daily fix with chris cillizza and chuck todd. former secretary of state condoleezza rice on education, national security and what her

future holds and the nation's export/import bank has lost its funding. if not fixed it's going to have to cancel accounts and shut down. the director will be explaining what that means for jobs. plus the interior secretary ken salazar traveling with the president on "andrea mitchell reports." we do have a lot of wet weather problems in areas of the lower portions of the united states, especially louisiana into arkansas and missouri. notice the east coast very warm today with the 80 degree temperatures all the way up through the great lakes. now we're finally warming up on the west coast, too. [ male announcer ] this one goes out to all the allergy muddlers.

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that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $6.4 billion in new credit to small businesses across the country last year. because the more we help them, the more we help make opportunity possible. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the big get. mitt romney's endorsed today by jeb bush who says now is the time for republicans to unite. what do other bush loyalists have to say about that? we'll talk about education, national security and, of course, politics with condoleezza rice. does mitt romney see the finish line? >> it's time to say these words. this word. enough. we've had enough. we know our future's brighter than these troubled times. >> but rick santorum is not giving up. >> we don't need a manager. we need someone who's going to pull up government by the roots and throw it